Not Sunsets

As well as our joyful opening hymn, our first three readings for this morning faithfully open the theme of Gaudete Sunday, rejoice, joy: 

Zephaniah (3:14-20) begins, 

“Sing aloud, O daughter Zion;

    shout, O Israel!

Rejoice and exult with all your heart,

    O daughter Jerusalem!”

Responding we have a choice of joyful, uplifting canticle or psalm of praise, and then the joy hymn from Philippians (4:4-7),

“4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Opening the Bible, we see Paul’s joyful tone of Philippians at 3:1 “Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord” abruptly broken by a sharp diatribe that, not unlike the mentally doubtful man we sometimes pass shouting aloud, barking eccentrically, as he rides his bicycle along Beach Drive, startlingly cuts in at Philippians 3:2,

“Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh— 4 even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more …” 

Some scholars attribute the interruption to the body of another of Paul’s letters to the Philippians being inserted at some early date by an editor who, maybe, was trying to condense Paul, save space or who knows what, maybe he only had one sheet of paper left to write on, or maybe it was Friday and he wanted to get home for the weekend. Various scholars who don’t see Philippians as a unit make of it two or three or four letters or fragments; we can explore that in Adult Sunday School if folks are interested. 

Anyway, after Philippians we sing a song, which the Church mysteriously calls the “sequence” and I call the gospel hymn, and then we hear Luke 3:7-18, the evangelists (this is in other gospels as well) quoting John the Baptist renouncing any claim to be the Christ, the long-expected Messiah. There are theological and historical reasons for this renunciation, including that there were folks early on (and still existed into present times in parts of the Middle East), folks who pointed to John as the Expected One. Among other things, this morning’s testimony of John the Baptist is meant to put that notion to rest. In fact, Luke does the best, most subtle, thorough and total job of that renunciation by beginning (Luke 1:5f) with an elegant narrative that puts John in his place in Christian history as prophet not Christ.

So this day, Advent 3, has two themes: liturgically doing a good job of honoring the church’s ancient introit of Gaudete, rejoicing, while we light the rose pink candle; and then cutting to the chase by giving John the Baptist his due before next Sunday when Mary comes on the scene to set the final stage for Bethlehem.

I actually was going to write about sunrises and sunsets this morning, but picked up the wrong laptop, so am adding a couple of shots from 7th Heaven last evening. Top, from Davis Point on the left, Shell Island center, and just the tip of Courtney Point showing on the right. Below, looking west across Thomas Drive and condos that don't look so impressive from 7th or any heaven, while a boat heads out to join others watching last evening's boat parade of lights. Maybe I'll do sunrises and sunsets another time. 

Thos+